How Does a Child's Brain Develop? | Susan Y. Bookheimer PhD | UCLAMDChat
UCLA Health・2 minutes read
Dr. Susan Bookheimer delves into child brain development, highlighting the importance of forming and maintaining brain connections known as the human connectome. Environmental factors, pruning of unnecessary connections, myelination, and specialized brain modules for functions like language are crucial aspects of brain development, impacting cognition and emotional experiences in adolescence and beyond.
Insights
- Brain development is primarily about forming and maintaining connections, not just size, with pruning of unnecessary connections and strengthening of useful ones being crucial processes.
- Environmental factors significantly influence which brain connections are maintained, shaping brain structures and networks, impacting functions like language, and potentially leading to abnormalities like the absence of the corpus callosum.
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Recent questions
What is the human connectome?
The human connectome refers to the intricate network of connections in the brain that are crucial for brain function and development.
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Summary
00:00
Child Brain Development: Forming Crucial Connections
- Dr. Susan Bookheimer, a UCLA professor of psychiatry, discusses child brain development in a webinar.
- Brain development focuses on forming connections, known as the human connectome.
- Connections in the brain are crucial for brain function and are related to the adolescent brain's complexity.
- Abnormal connections can lead to issues in brain development.
- Brain development is not about size but about forming and maintaining connections.
- The brain undergoes pruning of unnecessary connections while strengthening useful ones.
- Environmental factors play a significant role in determining which brain connections are maintained.
- Brain development involves three major changes: dendritic branch proliferation, myelination, and pruning of connections.
- Myelination is crucial for rapid and efficient communication between brain cells.
- Functional brain networks, like the visual, auditory, and language networks, are essential for complex tasks and can be measured using techniques like functional MRI.
16:25
Brain development: modules, networks, and environmental impacts.
- Brain structures are shaped by experiences, forming distinct modules like the language module, where different areas work together for language function.
- Functional MRI scans show changes in brain activity through development, with young children exhibiting diffuse brain activity in both hemispheres, while young adults show more specialized activity in the left hemisphere.
- Brain modules become specialized for specific functions like language, with less tissue dedicated to them as they become more efficient.
- Brain networks can be visualized through graphs, showing how different brain regions communicate; in typically developing children, networks are discrete and well-integrated, while in children with autism, there is excessive crosstalk between modules.
- Environmental exposures, like prenatal alcohol exposure, can profoundly impact brain development, leading to structural abnormalities like the absence of the corpus callosum.
- Adolescence is a period of rapid brain change, with increased sensitivity to rewards, novelty, and social experiences, but with underdeveloped emotional regulation areas until the 20s.
- Ongoing research projects at UCLA, like the Human Connectome Development Project and the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study, aim to understand brain development across different ages and conditions, studying brain connections, cognition, and emotional experiences.
